Search results for author:"Mete Akcaoglu"
Total records matched: 27 Search took: 0.135 secs
-
Learning Problem-Solving through Making Games at the Game Design and Learning Summer Program
Mete Akcaoglu
Educational Technology Research and Development Vol. 62, No. 5 (October 2014) pp. 583–600
Today's complex and fast-evolving world necessitates young students to possess design and problem-solving skills more than ever. One alternative method of teaching children problem-solving or thinking skills has been using computer programming, ...
-
Using games in classroom: All tutors and no stories make a virtual world a dull game
Mete Akcaoglu
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2011 (Mar 07, 2011) pp. 64–69
This experimental study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of inclusion of a storyline, as initiated and progressed by episodic tasks, in, Zon, a language-teaching virtual world. Researchers tested two versions of the platform (with or...
-
Design and Implementation of the Game-Design and Learning Program
Mete Akcaoglu
TechTrends: Linking Research and Practice to Improve Learning Vol. 60, No. 2 (2016) pp. 114–123
Design involves solving complex, ill-structured problems. Design tasks are consequently, appropriate contexts for children to exercise higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills. Although creating engaging and authentic design contexts for...
-
Teaching problem solving through making games: Design and implementation of an innovative and technology-rich intervention
Mete Akcaoglu
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2014 (Mar 17, 2014) pp. 597–604
In this paper, I describe the elements of a curriculum designed to teach middle school students how to solve complex problems using digital game-design as the main activity. Based on theories of problem solving and teaching of problem solving, and...
Topics: Games & Simulations, Computational Thinking, Information Technology Diffusion/Integration
-
Cognitive and motivational impacts of learning game design on middle school children
Mete Akcaoglu
(2013) pp. 1–144
In today`s complex and fast-evolving world, problem solving is an important skill to possess. For young children to be successful at their future careers, they need to have the skill and the will to solve complex...
-
Using Facebook Groups to Support Social Presence in Online Learning
Mete Akcaoglu; Eunbae Lee
Distance Education Vol. 39, No. 3 (2018) pp. 334–352
Building interpersonal connections in asynchronous online learning is important, but it is harder to achieve compared to face-to-face learning experiences due to its mostly text-based nature. Facebook is a popular social media platform and has been...
-
Increasing Social Presence in Online Learning through Small Group Discussions
Mete Akcaoglu; Eunbae Lee
The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning Vol. 17, No. 3 (May 16, 2016)
Social presence is a difficult to achieve, but an imperative component of online learning. In this study, we investigated the effect of group size on students' perceptions of social presence in two graduate-level online courses, comparing small...
-
Teaching to Teach (With) Game Design: Game Design and Learning Workshops for Preservice Teachers
Mete Akcaoglu; Ugur Kale
Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education Vol. 16, No. 1 (March 2016) pp. 60–81
Engagement in game design tasks can help preservice teachers develop pedagogical and technical skills for teaching and promoting critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Through the design process, preservice teachers not only exercise critical-...
-
The Role of Relevance in Future Teachers' Utility Value and Interest toward Technology
Ugur Kale; Mete Akcaoglu
Educational Technology Research and Development Vol. 66, No. 2 (2018) pp. 283–311
Seeing the relevance of tasks for future use is important for developing value and interest in them. We employed a pre- and post-test quasi-experimental design using a mixed-methods approach to examine if reflecting on the relevance of technology to ...
-
“I see smart people!”: Using Facebook to supplement cognitive and affective learning in the university mass lecture
Nicholas David Bowman; Mete Akcaoglu
Internet and Higher Education Vol. 23, No. 1 (October 2014) pp. 1–8
Mass lecture courses are a mainstay in university instruction despite their limitations regarding student engagement and resultant learning outcomes. Out-of-class communications and learning management systems have been developed to address these...
Language: English
-
Cognitive outcomes from the Game-Design and Learning (GDL) after-school program
Mete Akcaoglu; Matthew J. Koehler
Computers & Education Vol. 75, No. 1 (June 2014) pp. 72–81
The Game-Design and Learning (GDL) initiative engages middle school students in the process of game-design in a variety of in-school, after-school, and summer camp settings. The goal of the GDL initiative is to leverage students' interests in games...
Language: English
-
The Zon Project: Creating a Virtual Environment for Learning Chinese Language and Culture
D. Matthew Boyer; Mete Akcaoglu
World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education 2009 (Oct 26, 2009) pp. 2389–2393
The Zon Project is building a multi-user, game-based virtual environment to support learning Chinese language and culture. From its core, Zon is designed to be a multiplayer, online environment facilitating learning through gameplay. A goal of the...
-
Blending Synchronous Face-to-Face and Computer-Supported Cooperative Learning in a Hybrid Doctoral Seminar
Cary Roseth; Mete Akcaoglu; Andrea Zellner
TechTrends: Linking Research and Practice to Improve Learning Vol. 57, No. 3 (March 2013) pp. 54–59
Online education is often assumed to be synonymous with asynchronous instruction, existing apart from or supplementary to face-to-face instruction in traditional bricks-and-mortar classrooms. However, expanding access to computer-mediated...
-
Teaching Problem Solving through Game Design: Reflections on Game Design and Learning Summer Camp
Mete Akcaoglu; D. Matthew Boyer; Kristen Kereluik
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2012 (Mar 05, 2012) pp. 3–7
In this paper, we report the preliminary findings of the first Game Design and Learning Summer Camp, which was held in Istanbul, Turkey for the first time in the summer of 2011. Here we share the first insights we gained from the camp, as well as...
-
Refining TPACK Rubric through Online Lesson Plans
Mete Akcaoglu; Kristen Kereluik; Greg Casperson
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2011 (Mar 07, 2011) pp. 4260–4264
The purpose of this research study was twofold. First, we sought to refine a rubric originally created to assess the pre-service teachers' TPACK. Second and in doing the first, we sought to assess lesson plans created by leading technology companies ...
-
Coding Pre-Service Teacher Lesson Plans for TPACK
Kristen Kereluik; Greg Casperson; Mete Akcaoglu
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2010 (Mar 29, 2010) pp. 3889–3891
Technology is rapidly becoming a predominant force for education, and teachers now more than ever have nearly endless technological tools at their disposal. The specific role of technology in education is not always well understood or utilized to...
-
New Media Literacy Skills of Middle School Students in Turkey: Students Are Ready, Are the Schools?
Mete Akcaoglu; Kristen Kereluik; D. Matthew Boyer
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2012 (Mar 05, 2012) pp. 1621–1625
In this descriptive research conducted on middle school students in Istanbul, Turkey, we report the results of two cross-sectional surveys which measured the New Media Literacy (NML) skills (Jenkins et al. 2006) and perceived technology abilities,...
-
Contextual Factors Influencing Access to Teaching Computational Thinking
Ugur Kale; Mete Akcaoglu; Theresa Cullen; Debbie Goh
Computers in the Schools Vol. 35, No. 2 (2018) pp. 69–87
This study attempts to determine whether teachers' access to computational thinking (CT) and CT technologies varies by rurality (rural versus urban) of the school county and grade level taught (primary versus secondary). A total of 81 teachers from...
-
Outcomes from a self-generated utility value intervention on fifth and sixth-grade students’ value and interest in science
Mete Akcaoglu; Joshua M. Rosenberg; John Ranellucci; Christina V. Schwarz
International Journal of Educational Research Vol. 87, No. 1 (2018) pp. 67–77
The purpose of this field experiment was to understand whether fifth and sixth-grade students were able to write about the usefulness and relevance of what they were learning in their science class through self-generated reflections and to examine...
Language: English
-
State Educational Twitter Hashtags: An Introduction and Research Agenda
Joshua Rosenberg; Matthew Koehler; Mete Akcaoglu; Spencer Greenhalgh; Erica Hamilton
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2016 (Mar 21, 2016) pp. 355–360
Affinity spaces refer to digital and geographical spaces in which learning can happen, and some of the largest affinity spaces dedicated to education are those that currently exist on Twitter. These spaces are public, largely unmoderated, and...
Topics: Distance/Flexible Education
-
Policy, Practice, and Reality: Exploring a Nation-Wide Technology Implementation in Turkish Schools
Mete Akcaoglu; Sedat Gumus; Mehmet Sukru Bellibas; D Matthew Boyer
Technology, Pedagogy and Education Vol. 24, No. 4 (2015) pp. 477–491
Technology has already become an indispensable part of our lives, and nations around the world see schools as the main agents to prepare their youth for a technology-filled future, and invest important amounts of funding to provide hardware to...
-
The Substitution Augmentation Modification Redefinition (SAMR) Model: A Critical Review and Suggestions for Its Use
Erica R. Hamilton; Joshua M. Rosenberg; Mete Akcaoglu
TechTrends: Linking Research and Practice to Improve Learning Vol. 60, No. 5 (2016) pp. 433–441
The Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition (SAMR) model is a four-level, taxonomy-based approach for selecting, using, and evaluating technology in K-12 settings (Puentedura 2006). Despite its increasing popularity among...
-
Understanding Player Activity in a Game-based Virtual Learning Environment: A Case for Data-Driven Instructional Design
Silvia M. Pernsteiner; D. Matthew Boyer; Mete Akcaoglu
World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education 2010 (Oct 18, 2010) p. 763
When constructing game-based virtual learning environments, developers face considerations that differ from the concerns instructional designers raise for traditional learning scenarios. Absent are the physical world cues that teachers use to...
-
A Tale of Two Twitters: Synchronous and Asynchronous Use of the Same Hashtag
Joshua Rosenberg; Mete Akcaoglu; K. Bret Staudt Willet; Spencer Greenhalgh; Matthew Koehler
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2017 (Mar 05, 2017) pp. 283–286
Communication in online settings can occur at the same time (synchronously) or at different times (asynchronously). A new form of online learning in which teachers communicate both at the same time and at different times is through social media...
Topics: Distance/Flexible Education
-
Computational What? Relating Computational Thinking to Teaching
Ugur Kale; Mete Akcaoglu; Theresa Cullen; Debbie Goh; Leah Devine; Nathan Calvert; Kara Grise
TechTrends: Linking Research and Practice to Improve Learning Vol. 62, No. 6 (2018) pp. 574–584
Computational thinking is one of the skills critical for successfully solving problems posed in a technology driven and complex society. The limited opportunities in school settings to help students develop computational thinking skills underscores...
-
Development of an Instrument to Measure Faculty's Information and Communication Technology Access (FICTA)
Kamal Ahmed Soomro; Ugur Kale; Reagan Curtis; Mete Akcaoglu; Malayna Bernstein
Education and Information Technologies Vol. 23, No. 1 (2018) pp. 253–269
The phenomenon of "digital divide" is complex and multidimensional, extending beyond issues of physical access. The purpose of this study was to develop a scale to measure a range of factors related to digital divide among higher education ...
-
An Investigation of State Educational Twitter Hashtags (SETHS) as Affinity Spaces
Joshua M. Rosenberg; Spencer P. Greenhalgh; Matthew J. Koehler; Erica R. Hamilton; Mete Akcaoglu
E-Learning and Digital Media Vol. 13, No. 1 (2016) pp. 24–44
Affinity spaces are digital or physical spaces in which participants interact with one another around content of shared interest and through a common portal (or platform). Among teachers, some of the largest affinity spaces may be those organized...